Over the past several hours Trump have gone through several cycles of recommending school teachers be armed and then denying that he said school teachers should be armed. But sometimes he has made both claims in the same interview, so the “two Trump” theory doesn’t explain this. Split personality?

“If you had a teacher who was adept with the firearm, they could end the attack very quickly,” he said, stating that schools could arm up to 20% of their teachers to stop “maniacs” who may try and attack them.
“This would be obviously only for people who were very adept at handling a gun, and it would be, it’s called concealed carry, where a teacher would have a concealed gun on them. They’d go for special training and they would be there and you would no longer have a gun-free zone,” Trump said. “Gun-free zone to a maniac — because they’re all cowards — a gun-free zone is ‘let’s go in and let’s attack because bullets aren’t coming back at us.’ “

Most mass shooters commit suicide as soon as police close in, so the idea that fear of being shot might deter them seems … illogical. But let’s go on. After headlines broke out saying that Trump advocated arming teachers, he threw a fit.

I never said “give teachers guns” like was stated on Fake News @CNN & @NBC. What I said was to look at the possibility of giving “concealed guns to gun adept teachers with military or special training experience – only the best. 20% of teachers, a lot, would now be able to

….If a potential “sicko shooter” knows that a school has a large number of very weapons talented teachers (and others) who will be instantly shooting, the sicko will NEVER attack that school. Cowards won’t go there…problem solved. Must be offensive, defense alone won’t work!

….History shows that a school shooting lasts, on average, 3 minutes. It takes police & first responders approximately 5 to 8 minutes to get to site of crime. Highly trained, gun adept, teachers/coaches would solve the problem instantly, before police arrive. GREAT DETERRENT!

….immediately fire back if a savage sicko came to a school with bad intentions. Highly trained teachers would also serve as a deterrent to the cowards that do this. Far more assets at much less cost than guards. A “gun free” school is a magnet for bad people. ATTACKS WOULD END!

So now there are headlines all over the place saying that Trump proposed giving teachers guns and also denies proposing giving teachers guns. Yes, this is not leadership.

The “let’s arm teachers” proposal has been Out There for several years, and so far 18 states have acted on it. Educators are solidly against it. Seems to me that keeping loaded firearms in classrooms poses a greater danger to students than school shooters. It’s also the case that if shooters presume the teacher might be armed, teacher would be shot first.

Education groups argue that schools should instead invest in more school resource officers — trained law enforcement officers who can more effectively respond in a crisis. They believe that having guns in a classroom makes that classroom less safe and that having teachers potentially carrying guns will only make a school shooting more confusing for police trying to stop it.

“There is not a schools person I know who would make this case in any credible manner,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. “Anyone who suggests this has no real understanding of what goes on in schools, or worse doesn’t care, and is more focused on the needs of gun manufacturers and the NRA than of children.”

“You’re asking the teacher to have the presence of mind to not only do what her instincts compel her to do, but then find her loaded handgun and get in position … and be a good enough shot — in the middle of all of this — so that she can be the marksperson who then maims or kills the intruder with the rifle,” Weingarten said. “That may work on a movie, but in real life that is not a situation that most people will — even those who have been trained — will be able to do.”

The NRA and the GOP love dead school kids, another opportunity to market more guns, arm the teachers! Whats next hall monitors with tripod mounted M2's, we had these in the Army they were quite fun! To the NRA and the GOP every dead child represents the potential for more profit! Yay dead children!

In my experience Dark Triad flavored types don't believe in anything societal or cultural, outside of being more than means to their own personal ends. I expect Trump to say anything, but to do whatever his supporters want.

The magical thinking of armed teachers presents so many new problems that Chris Matthews can do a whole show about it. Still, I might've found it interesting if my school-marmy english teacher suddenly hiked up her skirt, pulled out a 44 Magnum and snarled… well you know… with her bundled hair and glasses suddenly falling away at the same time.

Theoretically, if schools wound up with all Navy Seals teachers, shooters would just move on to softer targets. Japan has a gun murder rate a tiny fraction of the US accidental shooting rate alone, with the reasons why being all too obvious. Unless you're in an American gun cult I suppose.

I like this conversation because it displays the incredible folly in allowing corporate special interests so much national power, and that sane people are catching on to this.

One of the reasons I've always enjoyed indulging in fantasy is because I could change the scenario to whatever I wanted to achieve the desired outcome to fulfill my fantasy. Problem solved!…provided you don't let reality get in the way.

For all the hating and demonization of teachers the right has engaged in over the years now they want them to put their lives on the line in shootouts with armed nutters. Just read Trump wants to give armed teachers a raise for carrying a gun.

Here's another aspect of this let's arm the teachers BS: Trump said 100-150 armed people for security at Stoneman. With almost 3,000 students, that's 3-5 per 100 students. There are 81.5 million students in the USA. This means 2.7-4 million such armed teachers. Where's the extra money coming from (Trump says we give them extra pay)? Where's the money for training these millions of armed teachers? Where's the money for the millions of weapons these armed teachers will be using?

Theoretically, if schools wound up with all Navy Seals teachers, shooters would just move on to softer targets.

Which should spawn better legislation: Prohibiting Fortune 500 companies and people with a net worth above, oh don't know, 2X the median income of a resident of Mississippi, from employing security services or other protection. They must rely on themselves, just like children at schools.

Yeah see how long it takes to get some sanity back into the marketplace after that takes effect.

This is an exciting time, because I sense a generation uniting over an issue similar to the way young people in the 1960s united over Viet Nam, by way of the draft and boys coming home in boxes. And it's not going to go away, given that statistically we're likely to see another Parkland or Las Vegas massacre soon. The more the right digs in, the more they create their own demise.

You're starting to see businesses pull away from the NRA, much as advertisers dumped Rush Dimbulb. Three car rental chains (owned by Enterprise) will no longer give discounts to NRA members. A bank in Omaha that offered a credit card product to NRA members is ending it. The trickle has begun.

Here's hoping this wave of youthful outrage translates into an even bigger blue wave this fall.

Thank you for writing on this. My mother was a teacher. It is gut-wrenching to me that this is being given genuine consideration. It's wrong on so many levels. And it's just a big dodge of the real problems. We have a societal problem. We don't solve it by making it the teachers' responsibility to handle it.